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NPD Sales Results for April 2014 [Up2: XB1/360 hardware, PS4 #1/XB1 #2 best selling]

prag16

Banned
Personally I don't think the industry wants nor can support three major consoles anymore. I'm hard pressed to buy two, I'm certainly not going to buy three.

Well, most people wouldn't buy three regardless. Just because some people will miss out on some segment of game output by not owning all competitors doesn't mean there shouldn't be competitors.

But you may be right; two might make more sense than three in a lot of ways these days. I vote for Sony and Nintendo. MSFT has generally had the weakest 1st party output all along (even including Halo).
 

mrpeabody

Member
The install base is getting larger. US Software sales on Wii U were up 26% in January, 180% in February and 80% in April. If software sales go up and there's no 3rd party games then that benefits Nintendo since they make 3-4x more profit on 1st party games than 3rd party games.

On the other hand, if hardware sales stay in the gutter because there aren't enough games and many genres are completely absent, that does not benefit Nintendo.

The average console owner only purchases 2-3 games a year, you don't actually need too many games to create a viable product. 10-20 games a year is all they need. That's why N64 did ok despite going many months without new releases.

These goalposts are moving so fast they're gonna get a speeding ticket.

At the start of next year the Wii U should be between 8-10M which is close to double where it was this year. It won't give them giant profits overall but it will make up for a lot of the damage that has already been done.

I assume you're talking shipped WW because sold numbers or individual regions don't come anywhere near to that range.

Wii U hardware shipped WW was 5.86M at the end of 2013. They might do 3M in 2014 and that would put them at 8.86M total. There is no way on God's green earth that they will double their LTD by shipping another 5.86M in 2014 (11.72M total).
 

ZSaberLink

Media Create Maven
LEGO The Hobbit didn't do very well at all. Like, below expectations quite significantly.

Like below 150K.

Oh I see. I had a feeling Lego: Hobbit didn't do well across any platforms. I look at the amazon rankings fairly frequently and Lego: Hobbit was abnormally low on the charts on all platforms compared to previous Lego games. I guess the rest of the market wasn't that different from Amazon in that case.

Where did prodigy get the #9 > 100K from though?
 
Oh I see. I had a feeling Lego: Hobbit didn't do well across any platforms. I look at the amazon rankings fairly frequently and Lego: Hobbit was abnormally low on the charts on all platforms compared to previous Lego games. I guess the rest of the market wasn't that different from Amazon in that case.

Where did prodigy get the #9 > 100K from though?

Probably from here:

titanfall-on-top-for-h6dmh.jpg


GTA V sold like 100K this month. Games like The Amazing Spider-Man 2 didn't do all that well either.

So Mario Kart 8 should be able to chart quite easily if next month's chart follows the same path for a Top 10 minimum.
 
What are the global/worldwide numbers looking like for the new consoles (PS4/XB1/WiiU)? Sorry I cant seem to find it here.

Not to come off as rude but you must not follow sales much.

WW sales numbers for consoles are rarely given out. The last we have from Sony is 7M sold to consumers on the 6th of April or so. Last from MS is 5 million sold to retailers but can't remember the date, sold to consumers is 3M as of Dec 31st, 2013

We have updated WW shipped to retailers for Wii U somewhere. Think it's around 5.86M

No idea last time we got WW sold to consumers for Wii U

I would link to the relevant sources but on my phone at present
 
Not to come off as rude but you must not follow sales much.

WW sales numbers for consoles are rarely given out. The last we have from Sony is 7M sold to consumers on the 6th of April or so. Last from MS is 5 million sold to retailers but can't remember the date, sold to consumers is 3M as of Dec 31st, 2013

We have updated WW shipped to retailers for Wii U somewhere. Think it's around 5.86M

No idea last time we got WW sold to consumers for Wii U

I would link to the relevant sources but on my phone at present

Sorry I knew about those numbers but I thought some GAFer may have added/uncovered some new figures.

I just went with PS4 at ~8M, XB1 ~5.5M, WiiU ~6M LTD and I wanted to know if I was way off. I thought maybe the PS4 was closer to 9M.
 
Yeah, that's what console warriors everywhere don't understand. Three healthy entities competing is much better for the industry than two or especially one. During PS1/PS2 days there was enough competition to keep them honest. We certainly don't want to be going to any situation worse than that one for this gen.

I dunno, competition is absolutely important, but xbone is already doing better against the PS4 than og Xbox or gamecube did against the PS2, right?
 
Sorry I knew about those numbers but I thought some GAFer may have added/uncovered some new figures.

I just went with PS4 at ~8M, XB1 ~5.5M, WiiU ~6M LTD and I wanted to know if I was way off. I thought maybe the PS4 was closer to 9M.

These are all of the exact figures we know right now:

Here are the shipment figures. I know they're not sales to consumers, but quarter-to-quarter differentials do give an indication of retailer demand:


Wii U Shipments to Retailers:

1 month, 14 days - December 31st, 2012: 3.06 million
4 months, 14 days - March 31st, 2013: 3.45 million
7 months, 13 days - June 30th, 2013: 3.61 million
10 months, 13 days - September 30th, 2013: 3.91 million
1 year, 1 month, 14 days - December 31st, 2013: 5.86 million
1 year, 4 months, 14 days - March 31st, 2014: 6.17 million


Xbox One Shipments to Retailers:

Less than 24 hours - November 22nd, 2013: >1 million sold through
19 days - December 10th, 2013 - >2 million sold through
1 month, 10 days - December 31st, 2013: 3.9 million shipped (>3 million sold through)
4 months, 10 days - March 31st, 2014: 5.1 million shipped

Wii Shipments:

1 month, 13 days - December 31st, 2006 - 3.19 million
4 months, 13 days - March 31st, 2007 - 5.84 million
7 months, 12 days - June 30th, 2007 - 9.27 million
10 months, 12 days - September 30th, 2007 - 13.17 million
1 year, 1 month, 13 days - December 31st, 2007 - 20.13 million



PS3 Shipments:

1 month, 21 days - December 31st, 2006 - 1.7 million
4 months, 21 days - March 31st, 2007 - 3.5 million
7 months, 20 days - June 30th, 2007 - 4.2 million
10 months, 20 days - September 30th, 2007 - 5.5 million
1 year, 1 month, 21 days - December 31st, 2007 - 10.4 million



PS4 Installbase:

2 days - November 16th, 2013 - 1 million
17 days - December 1st, 2013 - 2.1 million
1 month, 14 days - December 28th, 2013 - 4.2 million
2 months, 25 days - February 8th, 2014 - 5.3 million
3 months, 16 days - March 2nd, 2014 - 6.0 million
4 months, 23 days - April 6th, 2014 - 7.0 million
 

prag16

Banned
I dunno, competition is absolutely important, but xbone is already doing better against the PS4 than og Xbox or gamecube did against the PS2, right?

Oh yeah, definitely. I'm not saying right NOW we have an unhealthy situation. Just laughing at the people who WANT total dominance by one platform holder, and death/failure for the rest.
 
Oh yeah, definitely. I'm not saying right NOW we have an unhealthy situation. Just laughing at the people who WANT total dominance by one platform holder, and death/failure for the rest.

Dominance by one platform holder would be terrible for everyone but that one platform holder. Consumers, devs, pubs, journalists, manufacturing, truck drivers, retail... all would suffer.
 

prag16

Banned
Dominance by one platform holder would be terrible for everyone but that one platform holder. Consumers, devs, pubs, journalists, manufacturing, truck drivers, retail... all would suffer.

Agreed. If it ever came to pass, the few who clamor for such a situation would be sorry.
 
Dominance by one platform holder would be terrible for everyone but that one platform holder. Consumers, devs, pubs, journalists, manufacturing, truck drivers, retail... all would suffer.

What? No...

That's not how it works.

Developers win because we don't have to spend time writing 3 different fucking engines. More time is focused on the actual gameplay.

Consumers win because they don't have to split exclusive DLC to choose between platforms.

Publishers win because they don't have to the same old song and dance with as many 1st-parties

TRUCK DRIVERS don't give a shit. The same amount get sold. Unless you think masochists buying games on multiple platforms is more than a token amount of people.

Retail wins because they can put less redundant product on their shelves. Rather than having to figure out how many copies to order per platform, they can just figure it out for a SINGLE platform. Their ONLY loss is the end of the bidding war for shelf placement.

Journalists rarely review for multiple platforms beyond a single mention in one paragraph at the end.
 
Dominance by one platform holder would be terrible for everyone but that one platform holder. Consumers, devs, pubs, journalists, manufacturing, truck drivers, retail... all would suffer.

It seems the most notable occurrence of that phenomenon was the Game Boy's dominance:


Non-consolidated Game Boy shipments to the Americas:

7/89 - 8/89: 0.38 million
8/89 - 3/90: 1.54 million
4/90 - 3/91: 3.91 million
4/91 - 3/92: 2.08 million
4/92 - 3/93: 3.22 million
4/93 - 3/94: 3.68 million
4/94 - 3/95: 2.22 million
4/95 - 3/96: 1.50 million
4/96 - 3/97: 1.39 million
4/97 - 3/98: 3.00 million
4/98 - 3/99: 4.48 million
4/99 - 3/00: 8.71 million
4/00 - 3/01: 7.74 million
4/01 - 3/02: 1.46 million

Was the situation at USA retail / USA game development adversely affected by the Game Boy's retail dominance in the handheld industry?
 

commedieu

Banned
During that era there was still enough competition to keep them honest.

Sony has yet to fuck over its customer base.. develop shit titles and try to pawn them off as Aaa spending more on advertising than game dev. I'm sorry, but jt just does appear that Sony has a strategy based around consumer happiness with their products. And don't seem to have the business model of stealing/copying content to thwart sales on other consoles. They made a strong first party studios instead.

Sony's gaming comes from a pretty honest base. Woth people exited to work and share what they are doing with customers. Not treating us as if we are stupid and they know what's best.

Nintendo seems the same way. I dont see a world where sony started making shit product due to an abundance of market share. Just havent seen it affect my ps123 gaming that way.


Microsoft??? Their business model and relationship with consumers has spoken for itself. I don't want a world where the underpowered xbone is where all the publishers are going to nickel and dime us all woth incomplete sub par games with dlc/nonsense as a standard. With always on connections and harsh drm. Nope.
 

ascii42

Member
It seems the most notable occurrence of that phenomenon was the Game Boy's dominance:


Non-consolidated Game Boy shipments to the Americas:

7/89 - 8/89: 0.38 million
8/89 - 3/90: 1.54 million
4/90 - 3/91: 3.91 million
4/91 - 3/92: 2.08 million
4/92 - 3/93: 3.22 million
4/93 - 3/94: 3.68 million
4/94 - 3/95: 2.22 million
4/95 - 3/96: 1.50 million
4/96 - 3/97: 1.39 million
4/97 - 3/98: 3.00 million
4/98 - 3/99: 4.48 million
4/99 - 3/00: 8.71 million
4/00 - 3/01: 7.74 million
4/01 - 3/02: 1.46 million

Was the situation at USA retail / USA game development adversely affected by the Game Boy's retail dominance in the handheld industry?

Depends on how you look at it. The Game Boy's relative lack of competition meant that it didn't get a successor until 1998. Since the Game Gear was essentially dead by 1996 or so, handheld games from around then until 1998 had to target the underpowered Game Boy hardware. Better competition would have forced Nintendo to come out with a Game Boy successor earlier, which probably would have been good for Nintendo's handhelds as well, since it would have given more time between it and the DS for the GBC and GBA to live. Both had pretty shortened lifespans as it is.
 

Game Guru

Member
During that era there was still enough competition to keep them honest.

And there will be enough competition in this era to keep Sony honest. XB1 hasn't done bad as of yet, just bad compared to the PS4. In addition, there is also PC Gaming which could keep Sony honest as well, especially as Valve moves to have third-parties make console-esque boxes for their service.
 

Chobel

Member
Dominance by one platform holder would be terrible for everyone but that one platform holder. Consumers, devs, pubs, journalists, manufacturing, truck drivers, retail... all would suffer.

Define dominance, because PS2 dominated and there was no suffering.
 
And there will be enough competition in this era to keep Sony honest. XB1 hasn't done bad as of yet, just bad compared to the PS4. In addition, there is also PC Gaming which could keep Sony honest as well, especially as Valve moves to have third-parties make console-esque boxes for their service.

Look at the numbers past the first 3 months.

It's already tracking below the worst the Xbox 360 ever did in its first 7 years while the PS4 is tracking above the Wii.
 

Principate

Saint Titanfall
iicrMccVrPpH4.gif


Well, if that's enough competition, then I guess this new generation will be fine.

TBF that ended up with $599 , buy a second job. But judging by MS you don't even need to win let alone significantly to have that arrogance.

The biggest issue is really market contraction. Because with the current AAA model if it contracts significantly more it won't be pretty.
 

EGM1966

Member
Dominance by one platform holder would be terrible for everyone but that one platform holder. Consumers, devs, pubs, journalists, manufacturing, truck drivers, retail... all would suffer.

Is there really any proof of that? It's obvious in gaming industry alone there are examples that seem to disprove this - for example PS2 dominance didn't seem to hurt any of the parties you mention. Games sold well, diversity was great, retailers did very well, developers had low costs and less platforms to support, etc.

Note by dominance I don't mean monopoly - if PS4 becomes dominant this gen (seems almost foregone conclusion already but we'll see what MS can do) there will still be other options and competing devices to provide the benefits of competition for consumers nonetheless.
 

heidern

Junior Member
At the start of next year the Wii U should be between 8-10M which is close to double where it was this year. It won't give them giant profits overall but it will make up for a lot of the damage that has already been done.
I assume you're talking shipped WW because sold numbers or individual regions don't come anywhere near to that range.

Wii U hardware shipped WW was 5.86M at the end of 2013. They might do 3M in 2014 and that would put them at 8.86M total.

Are you agreeing or disagreeing with me?

Economics of scale apply not only to manufacturing, but also to shipping and, in the context of video games, advertising. At this point shipping is a tremendously bad situation for Nintendo since they pushed retailers to overstock and actually had to accept returns of some shipments, and haven't been able to maintain high enough shipping levels to enjoy price breaks on the highest bulk rates.

And while yes, every unit manufactured does effectively reduce the average cost of every unit manufactured, one of the things that drives that number back through the roof is having to halt or significantly draw down manufacturing for a protracted period of time. Do you think Nintendo's still cranking out half a million Wii-U's a month or more? I don't, because that would mean they're sitting on a stockpile of units larger than the number they've sold, which would have its own attendant costs.

This is just an uninformed rant. How much are these shipping costs exactly? How much are the price breaks on bulk rates? Attendant costs? What about advertising costs? What about if Nintendo reduce their advertising spend? Or what about other actions they take to reduce their costs?

If you want to use headline numbers to talk about overall performance that's fine, but if you want to delve into specifics to do that, then you'll actually need the specific numbers to come up with something worthwhile.

As far as them reaping the massive rewards of first party sales goes, you're somehow managing to ignore the fact that first party games cost them money to make, while third party games don't.

This is irrelevent because they're already making the first party games. If the share sales of first party games goes up then that's a benefit to Nintendo financially.

Honestly, I have no idea why you're trying to spin this. Assuming you're not being willfully obtuse about this, I can make it super simple:[/QUOTE]

How many of those years have been after the release of the Wii-U?

Nintendo have posted 3 years of losses. Wii U has been out for half of that time. But this isn't news, I already said that losses are made on the front end of the cycle and profitability is better at the back end.
 

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
What? No...

That's not how it works.

Developers win because we don't have to spend time writing 3 different fucking engines. More time is focused on the actual gameplay.

Consumers win because they don't have to split exclusive DLC to choose between platforms.

Publishers win because they don't have to the same old song and dance with as many 1st-parties

TRUCK DRIVERS don't give a shit. The same amount get sold. Unless you think masochists buying games on multiple platforms is more than a token amount of people.

Retail wins because they can put less redundant product on their shelves. Rather than having to figure out how many copies to order per platform, they can just figure it out for a SINGLE platform. Their ONLY loss is the end of the bidding war for shelf placement.

Journalists rarely review for multiple platforms beyond a single mention in one paragraph at the end.

This is the first time, probably ever, I have seen a legitimate reason for one dominate platform. Nice job.
 

Raonak

Banned
Yeah, that's what console warriors everywhere don't understand. Three healthy entities competing is much better for the industry than two or especially one. During PS1/PS2 days there was enough competition to keep them honest. We certainly don't want to be going to any situation worse than that one for this gen.

Some men want to watch the world burn.

Including me, as a self addmitted PS fanboy, the PS4 dominating has made gaf so much fun. gifs, megatons and meltdowns are glorious.
besides, PS3-360 were basically the same and the market is contracting, I don't really see how a smaller number of consoles is nessicerily a bad thing. especially with things like platform exclusive moneyhats/DLC. And theres plenty of competetion from mobile and PC space to keep everybody on their toes.
 
What? No...

That's not how it works.

Developers win because we don't have to spend time writing 3 different fucking engines. More time is focused on the actual gameplay.

Consumers win because they don't have to split exclusive DLC to choose between platforms.

Publishers win because they don't have to the same old song and dance with as many 1st-parties

TRUCK DRIVERS don't give a shit. The same amount get sold. Unless you think masochists buying games on multiple platforms is more than a token amount of people.

Retail wins because they can put less redundant product on their shelves. Rather than having to figure out how many copies to order per platform, they can just figure it out for a SINGLE platform. Their ONLY loss is the end of the bidding war for shelf placement.

Journalists rarely review for multiple platforms beyond a single mention in one paragraph at the end.

Developers lose because there would be no incentive for the holder to listen to concerns and incorporate solutions to become more dev friendly.

Consumers lose because no competition leads to higher prices and a lack of innovation/evolution of the product.

Publishers lose because there is nothing stopping the platform holder from raising royalties and putting in place policies that benefit only the platform holder.

Truck drivers lose because there are fewer units sold because of those higher prices and less innovative boxes.

Retail loses because they have no leverage when it comes to allocating space or bidding out promotional vehicles.

Journalists lose because they would be forced to march to whatever drum the holder wants them to as their livelihoods are fully dependent on one company.

That is precisely how it would work.

Define dominance, because PS2 dominated and there was no suffering.

Dominance meaning other platforms become unviable and disappear. An effective monopoly situation.

The PS2 era was not dominance. There was competition from both MS and Nintendo. The PS2 topped out at about 40 share of total market in 2003, with 48 share of the console space (US, PS2 certainly had over 50 share on a worldwide basis).
 
Sorry I knew about those numbers but I thought some GAFer may have added/uncovered some new figures.

I just went with PS4 at ~8M, XB1 ~5.5M, WiiU ~6M LTD and I wanted to know if I was way off. I thought maybe the PS4 was closer to 9M.

5.5M sold to consumers for the XB1 seems highly optimistic if you're trying to compare to PS4 sold to consumers numbers

I haven't run my projections on XB1 install base in a while though hmm
 

gtj1092

Member
Developers lose because there would be no incentive for the holder to listen to concerns and incorporate solutions to become more dev friendly.

Consumers lose because no competition leads to higher prices and a lack of innovation/evolution of the product.

Publishers lose because there is nothing stopping the platform holder from raising royalties and putting in place policies that benefit only the platform holder.

Truck drivers lose because there are fewer units sold because of those higher prices and less innovative boxes.

Retail loses because they have no leverage when it comes to allocating space or bidding out promotional vehicles.

Journalists lose because they would be forced to march to whatever drum the holder wants them to as their livelihoods are fully dependent on one company.

That is precisely how it would work.



Dominance meaning other platforms become unviable and disappear. An effective monopoly situation.

The PS2 era was not dominance. There was competition from both MS and Nintendo. The PS2 topped out at about 40 share of total market in 2003, with 48 share of the console space (US, PS2 certainly had over 50 share on a worldwide basis).

If ps2 wasn't dominate no console ever was. You're describing a monopoly not dominance. And monopolies don't always result in the problems you listed.
 
If ps2 wasn't dominate no console ever was. You're describing a monopoly not dominance. And monopolies don't always result in the problems you listed.

Was responding to arguments for a monopoly.

And please don't tell me that we have to have a discussion about why monopolies are always bad for everyone but the monopolist.
 

balohna

Member
As of 2005, the PS2 had sold 100 million. It still clearly won the generation, but the Xbox and DC were dead (MS halted all original Xbox development ahead of the 360) and the GC was on life support at that point so I think it's safe to say they were over 50 million combined.

It really pulled ahead in the following years as people were putting off the next generation, or lived in regions where it was still the best thing a person could reasonably afford. Not to say doubling your competition combined isn't an amazing feat, but it's not like we went a whole generation where nobody played anything but PS2. That said if you polled average people you knew, they probably didn't give a shit about anything else. Maybe GBA.
 
Sorry I knew about those numbers but I thought some GAFer may have added/uncovered some new figures.

I just went with PS4 at ~8M, XB1 ~5.5M, WiiU ~6M LTD and I wanted to know if I was way off. I thought maybe the PS4 was closer to 9M.

I'd put the Xbone at around 4.4 million sold to consumers. 60% of sales, at least in 2013, were in the US (1.8 million / 3.0 million.) It has sold, approximately, 827k units (according to NPD threads) in the US from Jan - April (827k / .6 = 1378k + 3000k = 4.37 million). That's assuming the ratio was constant.

Sales for the PS4 obviously can't be calculated in the same fashion because it's available in more markets today than it was in January. The same could probably be said for the Wii U, assuming it had a staggered worldwide release schedule.
 

ZSaberLink

Media Create Maven
If both Nintendo AND MS were to bow out of the console market, you really don't think someone else would step in and succeed? Sony isn't Verizon or AT&T where they can bend the laws to suit their needs. They have to actually please their consumers, as the PS3 taught them.
 

prag16

Banned
And there will be enough competition in this era to keep Sony honest. XB1 hasn't done bad as of yet, just bad compared to the PS4. In addition, there is also PC Gaming which could keep Sony honest as well, especially as Valve moves to have third-parties make console-esque boxes for their service.

Never said there wouldn't be. Basically was just making an offhand comment condemning the small group of people who WANT there to be no competition. Didn't intend for the whole discussion to go off on that tangent, lol.
 
I doubt some company would just jump into console gaming. I have no stake in the console wars, nor do I care about them, but some third party entering the console space honestly sounds totally ridiculous to me. The console space sees very thin profit margins compared to 10 years ago and just getting in the space would cost a company billions that would take years to pay off. Actually, hardware itself is hardly profitable in this market. The shareholders of both Amazon and Google have been yelling at the companies to stay away from hardware as it is so it would completely surprise me if either decided to just jump into one of the least-profitable hardware markets.

I mean, yeah, if either of the big 3 were to become totally tyrannical and all alone in the space then maybe someone would join in but they definitely would be reluctant about it.
 

Instro

Member
I have yet to see any evidence of such a threat care to elaborate? I still think it's way too early to call anything about steamOS.

Ignoring SteamOS, the implications of of PC's streaming games to various other household devices is certainly threatening to traditional consoles. Perhaps none of it is an immediate issue, compared to other things shaking up the market, but its there.
 

Bgamer90

Banned
Look for at LEAST a 3:1 or 4:1 shellacking next month of the PS4 to the XB1 - forgot about Watch Dogs being released.

Honestly don't see watchdogs being a top PS4 seller as others do. If the game was current gen only then yeah. But multiple platforms (last gen and current)? On the same day too?
I don't think the game will push many to get a PS4. I think the majority of Watchdogs sales on current gen will come from people who already own an Xbox One and/or PS4.
 

AgentP

Thinks mods influence posters politics. Promoted to QAnon Editor.
Honestly don't see watchdogs being a top PS4 seller as others do. If the game was current gen only then yeah. But multiple platforms (last gen and current)? On the same day too?
I don't think the game will push many to get a PS4. I think the majority of Watchdogs sales on current gen will come from people who already own an Xbox One and/or PS4.

You might want to check the Amazon rankings. PS4 has been higher than all other versions for months. Last sales are dying.
 

donny2112

Member
SteamOS is a legitimate threat to all consoles

SteamOS is Linux, which doesn't play all the games. :/ If it was a SteamOS that natively played all the games and took away the psychological barrier of PC setup for gaming, then it might be a larger force.

Didn't people say that the $99 Ouya was going to be a legitimate threat to consoles as well?

Steam comes built-in with a multi-million active userbase with potential to grow due to no more "but upgrading my PC would cost me $1000s, so a console is cheaper," if it played all the games.
 
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